Five Guys, Five Poems

Topher Mills was born in Cardiff where he still lives. His writing has appeared in magazines and anthologies and been performed in many venues and festivals both in the UK and abroad. He's also worked in radio, television and film and has written review columns for The Western Mail and New Welsh Review. From 1997 to 2001 he was elected chairman of The Welsh Union Of Writers and in 2006 he won an Arts Council Of Wales Bursary Award. His previous books include: The Bicycle Is An Easy Pancake (Red Sharks Press, 1987); The Dancing Drayman (Red Sharks Press, 1993); and Swimming In The Living Room (Red Sharks Press, 1995).Dai Smith was born in the Rhondda in 1945. His writing has encompassed history, biography, essays and criticism. He was the Series Editor of the Library of Wales and Chair of the Arts Council Wales and was made a CBE for services to arts and culture in Wales in 2016. He currently edits the Modern Wales Series and is Chair of the Dylan Thomas Prize. With The Crossing, Dai Smith built upon and completed his trilogy of fictional work, Dream On, What I Know I Cannot Say and What Lies Beneath. His memoir Off the Trackwas published in 2023.Patrick Jones is author of six performed works and many more published. He was born in Tredegar, Wales. Peter Finch is a poet, writer, performer, walker and literary entrepreneur living in Cardiff. He was at the forefront of the UK's small press revolution in the 60s and the 70s with his magazine Second Aeon and pioneered performance poetry in Wales during the 1980s. From 1974 to 1995 he ran the Oriel Bookshop in Cardiff. From 1996 to 2011 he was Chief Executive of Yr Academi Gymreig / The Welsh Academy, an organisation which was later rebranded as Literature Wales. His published works are extensive. Everything To Play For - The Poetry of Peter Finch, a critical study of his work by Andrew Taylor appeared in 2025.Ifor Thomas is a contemporary Welsh poet, short story writer, and performance poet known for his boundary-pushing work and his book of poetry, Body Beautiful,which deals with his experience with prostate cancer. He is a recipient of the John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry and the Cardiff International Poetry Competition.

Edited and introduced by Natasha Gauthier."The five poets gathered here are indisputably male and, quite possibly, uniformly pale (I can’t vouch for their sunbathing or fake tan habits). But they are also among the true éminences grises of contemporary Welsh poetry. Not only have they witnessed the flourishing of Welsh publishing in the late 20th and early 21st centuries; in many cases, they helped to lead it, shape it, and drive it skyward through sheer brilliance and force of will" Natasha Gauthier